📣 Brand Starter Kit

A constrained, tasteful brand foundation for organizations that cannot afford full brand strategy.

Marketing & Content · No backend. No login. Client data stays local.

Live app · Report an issue · Volta

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✨ What it does

Brand Starter Kit is a polished, local-first open-source tool from Volta's open-source program. It helps Design and marketing students creating first visual systems turn real community work into structured evidence, client-safe handoffs, and mentor-reviewable release packets.

Volta principle: digital equity is economic equity. Every tool in this collection is designed so students can ship useful, accountable technology for small businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations that are usually priced out of high-quality digital transformation.

The gap it closes

Brand tools are either too abstract or too advanced. Small clients need enough consistency to look credible.

The niche

First professional identity for local businesses and nonprofits.

North-star metric

client materials using consistent brand rules

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🧭 Product map

flowchart TD
    Need["Community or client need"] --> Intake["Volta discovery intake"]
    Intake --> Evidence["Evidence capture"]
    Evidence --> Workbench["Brand Starter Kit"]
    Workbench --> Score["Content readiness"]
    Score --> Cert["release certification"]
    Cert --> A1["Brand guide"]
    Cert --> A2["CSS token snippet"]
    Cert --> A3["Canva handoff checklist"]
    Cert --> Student["Student portfolio proof"]
    Cert --> Sponsor["Sponsor-ready impact proof"]

    classDef volta fill:#111827,stroke:#60a5fa,color:#ffffff,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef equity fill:#ecfdf5,stroke:#16a34a,color:#052e16,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef proof fill:#fff7ed,stroke:#f97316,color:#431407,stroke-width:2px;
    class Workbench,Cert volta;
    class Need,Intake,Evidence equity;
    class Student,Sponsor proof;

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flowchart LR
    subgraph Modules["First-class modules"]
        M1["Voice card"]
        M2["Color/type sheet"]
        M3["Logo usage checklist"]
        M4["Canva handoff guide"]
    end
    M1 --> Workbench
    M2 --> Workbench
    M3 --> Workbench
    M4 --> Workbench
    Workbench["Local-first workbench"] --> Exports["JSON · CSV · Markdown · Print"]
    Exports --> Review["Owner + mentor review"]
    Review --> Launch["Client handoff"]

    classDef module fill:#eff6ff,stroke:#2563eb,color:#172554;
    classDef app fill:#f8fafc,stroke:#0f172a,color:#0f172a,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef launch fill:#f0fdf4,stroke:#22c55e,color:#052e16,stroke-width:2px;
    class M1,M2,M3,M4 module;
    class Workbench,Exports,Review app;
    class Launch launch;

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sequenceDiagram
    participant S as Student pod
    participant T as Brand Starter Kit
    participant M as Mentor
    participant C as Client
    S->>T: Capture owner voice
    S->>T: Generate channel-ready assets
    T->>M: Export review packet
    M->>S: QA notes and approval
    S->>C: Client-safe handoff
    C->>S: Outcome feedback

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🟦 TypeScript-first

This repository is authored in TypeScript. The checked-in JavaScript files are compiled artifacts so the project can run directly on GitHub Pages without a build server.

• Source: src/**/*.ts and test/**/*.ts
• Build: npm run build
• Runtime artifacts: src/**/*.js for static hosting

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🚀 Features

Area	What ships in this release
Domain workbench	A purpose-built brand kit interface for a constrained, tasteful brand foundation for organizations that cannot afford full brand strategy.
Local-first runtime	Runs as a static web app with local autosave and no server dependency.
Certification flow	Release gates require status, owner, severity, and evidence before production handoff.
Exports	JSON release bundle, CSV operational table, Markdown certification report, print-ready handoff.
Integrity	Deterministic certification hash detects changed evidence.
Safety	Privacy notes, secret-safe markdown checks, wrong-product import rejection, client-safe defaults.
Accessibility	Skip links, keyboard-friendly controls, ARIA meter/list semantics, high-contrast focus support.

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🧩 Modules

#	Module	Why it matters
1	Voice card	Converts field work into repeatable, reviewable Volta delivery evidence.
2	Color/type sheet	Converts field work into repeatable, reviewable Volta delivery evidence.
3	Logo usage checklist	Converts field work into repeatable, reviewable Volta delivery evidence.
4	Canva handoff guide	Converts field work into repeatable, reviewable Volta delivery evidence.

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✅ Production acceptance

Gate	Acceptance signal
1	owner approval required
2	consent tracked
3	channel-ready copy exported
4	local voice preserved

Full release quality gates

• All exports work offline
• Privacy and data handling documented
• No blocked critical gates
• Every certified claim has evidence
• Import rejects wrong product bundles
• Release hash is deterministic
• Client-safe markdown contains no secrets
• CSV contains every operational row
• Contrast minimums
• Font/license notes required
• Owner approval before publishing

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🏗️ Production infrastructure

This repo is designed to be usable as a real OSS product, not just a static demo.

Layer	Included
Reproducible build	package-lock.json, npm ci, TypeScript build artifacts
Local runtime	Static app via npm start
Container runtime	Dockerfile, docker-compose.yml, hardened Nginx config
Developer environment	.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
Operations	Makefile, .env.example, deployment docs, API docs
CI/CD	GitHub Actions CI, release artifact workflow, Dependabot

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🛠️ Quick start

git clone https://github.com/volta-npo/brand-starter-kit.git
cd 25-brand-starter-kit
npm install
npm test
npm start

Then open the local URL shown by Python, usually:

http://localhost:4173

No install step is required for the app itself. Tests use Node's built-in test runner.

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🧪 Validation

This repository includes 25 automated tests covering core scoring, domain behavior, v1 release behavior, and release certification.

npm test

Test coverage includes:

• configuration weights and launch readiness
• product-specific domain sample data
• artifact generation and markdown exports
• v1 launch packet behavior
• release import/export round trips
• wrong-product import rejection
• deterministic integrity hashes
• blocked/critical gate prevention
• markdown safety checks

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📦 Repository layout

.
├── index.html              # Static app shell
├── styles.css              # Responsive Volta UI system
├── src/
│   ├── config.js           # Product mission, rubric, and sample data
│   ├── domain.js           # Domain-specific workbench definition
│   ├── domain-core.js      # Domain calculations and artifacts
│   ├── v1*.js              # v1 release layer
│   └── v3*.js              # v3 release certification layer
├── test/                   # 25 automated tests
├── docs/                   # Operations, QA, release checklist
└── examples/               # Release bundle template

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🌍 Why Volta is open-sourcing this

Volta works with students, nonprofits, and small businesses to make practical digital transformation accessible. These repositories are intentionally:

• small enough to understand in a student pod
• useful enough to run in a real community engagement
• safe enough to hand off to a nontechnical owner
• structured enough to review by mentors and sponsors
• open enough to fork for any chapter or community group

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome if they improve real-world usefulness for under-resourced organizations. The best issues include:

1. a real user or chapter scenario,
2. before/after evidence,
3. privacy and accessibility considerations,
4. a test or release-checklist update.

Read CONTRIBUTING.md, SECURITY.md, and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md before opening a PR.

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📄 License

MIT License. Built by Volta for public benefit.

Designed in Jacksonville. Coded globally. Built for digital equity.